Simulated driving task used to study the effect of blue-enriched white light on arousal and driving performance.

Together with colleagues at the University of Granada and the University of Murcia, Enrique Molina just published a study investigating the effect of blue-enriched white light and long-wavelength orange light on arousal and driving performance. The results indicate that blue-enriched white light enhanced physiological arousal but did not improve reaction times or driving performance in a driving simulation. The study concludes that the increase in arousal yielded by the exposure to blue-enriched white light may prejudicial in certain tasks requiring high precision behavior.

Reference:
Rodríguez-Morilla, B., Madrid, J. A., Molina, E., & Correa, A. (2017). Blue-Enriched White Light Enhances Physiological Arousal But Not Behavioral Performance during Simulated Driving at Early Night. Frontiers in Psychology, 22 June, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00997